


Life's Greatest Happiness

by Jadesfire



Category: Sense8 (TV)
Genre: Kid Fic, Multi, all the happiness, future!fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-15 03:15:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13022094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jadesfire/pseuds/Jadesfire
Summary: The cluster has plans to meet for Christmas, but Lito starts to suspect that's not the only planning that's going on.





	Life's Greatest Happiness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yasaman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yasaman/gifts).



> This is an unashamedly, unapologetically happy fic. For me, one of the greatest things about Sense8 is that its characters are allowed to feel joy and find happiness, and I wanted to somehow bottle that and put it into the story. 
> 
> It will, of course, be totally jossed by the upcoming finale, but for now, I want them to live in this happy, contented future.

**_Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved._ ** _  
Victor Hugo_

It's Nomi who finds and books everything, of course. The others just add tickets to phones, or get them in the post. Capheus has a long wait at the embassy, but even that isn't too bad, not compared to sorting out Sun's complicated records so that she can cross various borders without being flagged. After that, all everyone has to do is wait.

~~~

Lito is busy enough that he doesn't really notice anything at first. When he visits with Wolfgang, it's not exactly strange for him and Kala to suddenly stop talking, nor for Will and Riley to break off as soon as he appears. It's only when a surge brings him into Nomi's living room that something catches his attention.

"...a lovely thing," Nomi says. She's grinning at Amanita, but when she glances up and sees him, her eyes go wide for a second, and her grin seems a little panicked. "That you did," she adds, a little shakily. "Hi, Lito."

Reading people is something Lito does, and despite their time together, Nomi's no actor.

"Hey," he says carefully. "What's going on?" He'd caught the rush of joy, the delight that's still on Nomi's face, however much she's trying to hide it. If he concentrates, the memory of her happiness is still echoing in his head.

"Oh, not much. We're just talking about Christmas presents," Nomi says, and she's a really, truly, terrible liar. "Amanita got something really special for her mom this year."

It's impossible to miss the surprise, then swiftly hidden annoyance on Amanita's face before she smiles, following Nomi's eye line to at least try to look in his direction. "Uh, yeah. I'm really please with it."

She's a lot better at this than Nomi, that's for sure. Still, Lito is suspicious enough now that he's not falling for it. 

Crossing his arms, he says, "Oh, really. What is it?"

Nomi, who'd looked relieved at how well the question had been dodged, gives Amanita a suddenly panicked stare. "He asked what it is," she says slowly, in a way that has be playing for time. She gives Lito an insincere smile, which he returns in kind.

"What it is?" Amanita repeats. For people who are so frighteningly intelligent, they can be a little slow sometimes. "Oh, uh. It's. Uh." She hesitates, and Lito actually sees the moment when she thinks of the answer. It would be adorable if it wasn't so ridiculous. "A photo book. Of the sixties. I scanned a bunch of pictures of her and my dads, so they'd have them all in one place."

Nomi is nodding so hard she's going to give herself neck strain. "Yeah, it's a really sweet idea."

She can probably tell from his expression just how convinced he is, even as he smiles and nods. "That's very sweet," he says. "Really, a lovely thing."

"Isn't it?" Nomi's smile is wide and relieved, enough that he feels it, just as he'd felt her delight. "As we're not going to be around this year, Amanita wanted to do something special."

She's cheated, replacing the relief with the excitement that always goes through them when they're actually going to manage to be in the same place at the same time. It overrides everything else, and it's only a second before Capheus is there too, his grin as broad as Nomi's. 

"Are we talking about Christmas?" he asks, and Amanita gets up to make tea as the conversation takes a new direction.

Still, Lito doesn't miss the look she gives Nomi along with her mug, which clearly says _dodged that bullet._

~~~

"Do you want one?" Dani asked, on the third day of their second year in LA.

They were at a first birthday party for one of the sons of a cameraman on Lito's latest project. Kids and parents were running around everywhere, and the three of them had retreated a little, partly to stay out of the general chaos and partly because Lito was scared he'd step on a baby when he wasn't looking.

Hernando choked on his drink. 

"Want what?" Lito asked, thumping Hernando on the back while trying not to spill his own wine.

"Want one?" Dani gestured with her glass to the crowd of little ones apparently mesmerised by a clown making balloon animals. "A baby."

Hernando possibly thumped Lito harder than necessary. He was going to bruised, he just knew it.

When he could breathe again, he stared at Dani, who was watching them both with a calm, expectant expression. For a second, Lito's mind was utterly blank, the surprise filling his brain and not really leaving room for anything else. Over Dani's shoulder, he saw Will's worried face, and he shook his head, just a fraction, as though trying to clear it. This was not a conversation he wanted to have with seven others right now. He wasn't even sure he wanted to have it with two of the people he loved most in the world.

"Well?" 

"Well?" Hernando sounded as dumbstruck as Lito felt. "What do you mean, well?"

"I mean, _well?_. What do you think?"

It took an effort of will for Lito to tear his eyes away from Dani, but he had to, glancing at Hernando, whose mouth was hanging open. As soon as their eyes met, all of the panic fled, and Lito found himself smiling, utterly calm. This was how Sun felt before a fight, all fears melting away and leaving nothing but serenity behind. 

Some of that must have shown on his face, because Hernando somehow managed to look even more surprised. He shut his mouth with a snap, and then looked from Lito to Dani and back again.

"We should-" he started to say.

"Yes," Lito said, interrupting him. When he turned back to Dani, there was something so radiant in her smile that he didn't doubt it was the right answer. "Yes, we do."

~~~

Wolfgang likes the house, which he expresses by appearing as unimpressed as possible. He wanders around, prods the pillows on the couch, peers out of the window and squints in the sunlight.

"Not bad, I guess." Still, he grins when Lito does, belying his nonchalant tone. "Has everything been okay with it? It's usually only when you've been in a place a while that you find what's wrong with it."

"So far." Lito shrugs a little. "There's enough room for everyone, and work's going well."

"I saw. The last one was actually pretty good." From Wolfgang, that's a five star review, and for a second, the approval and gratitude ripple between them. "Is there a problem, though?"

"The windows." Lito gestures to them. "The catches keep slipping, making them open by themselves."

Wolfgang's always been the practical one. While he's here, Lito reaches a little further, steps into the workshop in Paris behind the hardware shop- 

-and bumps so hard into Wolfgang's shoulder that he's bounced back to LA and his own living room. 

"Sorry," Wolfgang says, not sounding it. "I'm trying to concentrate." He's running his fingers over the latches carefully, examining the mechanism, and Lito narrows his eyes at the back that is so expressively turned to him. 

"Sure," he says, "no problem." Because it's probably rude to accuse someone of lying to you when they're fixing your stuff.

Settling back on the sofa, he pretends to listen as Wolfgang lists of the tools he's going to need, along with some hardware supplies. It's not like he's going to be allowed to shop for them on his own, after all, so he doesn't really need to remember. Instead, he watches the tight set of Wolfgang's shoulders, and wonders.

~~~

The realtor seemed like a nice enough lady, and it was good to know that she'd been vetted six ways to Sunday before the three of them even walked into her office. Will had even got Diego to run a full background check, which had seemed unnecessary, but he supposed they were only still alive because Will and Nomi really were this paranoid. It was probably safest to assume that they should check for BPO everywhere for the foreseeable future, and he'd admit, it was good to know this was apparently the closest the city had to an honest real estate agent. Lito did his best to keep his eyes on her as they talked, and the others prowled the office.

"I have your details," she said, glancing at her computer monitor before smiling back at them. "And, of course, I know your work."

"That's very kind of you," Lito said, carefully ignoring the way Nomi was leaning over the woman's shoulder, double-checking the details on the screen. "We just feel it is time to settle down. Find somewhere with more space."

"Six bedrooms is definitely more space." She was still smiling, which was probably good, and they weren't looking for anything crazy by film star standards. "And you're renting at the moment?"

Capheus was at the wall of pictures of properties, his eyes wide. "Do they all have swimming pools?" he asked, and Sun shrugged.

"This is LA," she said, although she sounded more amused than disapproving. Lito didn't know if it was at him or Capheus. "Probably."

"Yes," Dani said, "but it's a short term contract. We're keen to find somewhere as soon as possible." The hand that wasn't clutching Lito's was curled in her lap, as though she was trying to resist putting it on her stomach. 

"Of course." With her loose fitting dress, Lito was pretty sure that only her and Hernando could see the changes that thirteen weeks had brought to Dani so far, but there was something knowing in the Realtor's eye that made him wonder. "We do have several properties on our books at the moment that would be suitable, many of which could be available quickly. I'll send you some links, and you can let me know which you want to view. Did you have a particular area in mind?"

"Not really," Hernando started, just as Lito said, "The hills. Or near the sea." He cleared his throat, and tried not to glare at Kala, who was unapologetic. "Somewhere that the air quality is better."

Hernando, who'd looked surprised at first, just shrugged. "That's actually a good idea."

"Somewhere with good schools," Kala added, and Lito just about managed to clamp down on the words, as Wolfgang gave her a look. "What?" she said. "These things are important."

"Somewhere safe," Wolfgang said, still looking at her.

"Really," Lito said, a little too loudly, probably, "we just want somewhere that we can call home."

~~~

He is, Lito will admit, terrible at Tai Chi. Sun has been trying to teach him, but he can really only manage it well when she does it for him, his brain that is normally so good at remembering lines and blocking seeming to have a weird blind spot when it comes to this.

On the other hand, it's warm in LA and raining in Tokyo, so Sun is content to practice by herself, and he's content to let her. The city, the set and his family have gone a bit Christmas Crazy recently, making the hour he's set aside to just breathe and let Sun work on her forms a welcome respite.

Something buzzes, the sound on the edge of his awareness, and he puts a hand on his phone, only realising as he does so that it's Sun's phone instead. She's sitting cross-legged on the floor of her apartment, frowning a little at whatever message she's just received.

"Anything wrong?" he asks, settling himself on her couch. It's still dark here, and the rain is beating against the window, distracting him. 

"No, it's fine."

He's not so distracted that he doesn't notice her distraction in turn. "What?"

"Just a delivery I've been waiting for," she says. "I'll go and pick it up later."

"Is it from Nomi? Or one of the others?"

"No."

Nomi had set Sun up with an anonymous PO Box, just in case, but it hadn't occurred to Lito that she might actually get post from anyone outside the cluster. Picking up his curiosity, she shrugged one shoulder. "One of my old prison friends."

Of all of them, she's the only one who can lie to Lito and get away with it, and the answer feels oddly evasive. 

Before he can ask, she's on his feet again, lifting her arms to start. "There's enough time for a little more practice first," she says. And he takes a deep breath.

~~~

House hunting in LA brought back a lot of strange memories. At nearly four months pregnant, Dani seemed to have more energy than either Lito or Hernando, and it was mildly terrifying. They trailed after her through house after house, each one rejected for reasons that were probably grounded in reality, but were starting to feel like fanciful excuses.

On the third day of the hunting, Lito managed to slip into a small bedroom, sit on the perfectly made bed, and allowed himself a moment of panic.

"She just wants something perfect," Riley said, stroking his back gently. "And she wasn't wrong about that kitchen."

"That's what's so frustrating" Lito said. "I know she's right, but is anything going to be a good enough?"

"I liked the one with the palm trees," Wolfgang put in, unhelpfully. He'd glowered at the security system of pretty much every place they'd viewed, and Lito already knew that wherever they ended up, there was some serious rewiring in his future.

"They cast too much shade," Kala told him, swatting his arm when he pulled a face at her. "And I do not like the fireplace here. The corners are too sharp."

In the corner, Capheus was just shaking his head. "Things like that are easily changed. But I think the view from the next one will be better." He'd been just as fussy as everyone else, criticising bathroom fittings and lightshades, and poking into every dark corner. "If you are spending this much money," he'd said, "you must make sure you are spending it properly."

"I know, I know," Lito said, dropping his head back into his hands. "And I thought I could do this, but." He shook his head. "It is not that simple. Every time Dani doesn't like something, or Hernando say it is in the wrong place, I get scared."

"Scared?" Will asked.

"He's worried they will not let him have any of them," Sun said, coming to stand in front of him and pulling his hands away from his face. "He is worried that if he does not take what he is offered, then he will be left with nothing." She crouched down, looking up at him as the others came closer, encircling them. "LA realtors do not have morality clauses," she said, one corner of her mouth twitching, just a little. "If they did, no one would ever be able to buy a house here."

Her certainty was unshakeable, and some of the tight bands around Lito's chest eased. "I just want to get it right for my family," he whispered.

Nomi, sitting beside him on the bed, leaned against him, pressing her temple to his. "And you will," she said. Then she frowned, shifting a little, and bouncing on the mattress. "Although, I have to say, this bed is really uncomfortable. Does this place come furnished?"

~~~

When he can depend on nothing else, Lito knows that Kala will always take him shopping. She loves Rodeo Drive with a fervour that even puts Dani to shame, and their European sprees gave Nomi palpitations as she tried to shift money around to cover the credit card bills. It's not that they can't afford it, thanks to BPO assets, but the others don't really appreciate the necessity of having a really good session of retail therapy.

Milan is wonderful, they agree, but they know their labels well enough to know that they're also being ripped off. So Kala tries without buying, and Lito sends himself some pictures of what the well-dressed European is wearing these days. It's always useful to get out ahead of Hollywood fashions, and Dani will quiz him about it anyway.

They end up with an eight euro espresso at Caffe Biffi, sipping slowly and watching the world go by.

"It looks like I will have plenty of room in my suitcase after all," Kala says. She has a bluetooth earpiece in, her hair tucked behind her ear to make it look like she's not just talking to herself. "And this coffee is still far too strong."

"No it's not," Lito says, taking another sip. "You just don't appreciate it properly."

"I appreciate that it feels like I'm losing taste buds every time you drink it." She sighs a little. "I was hoping to find things for at least a few people, but I promised Nomi I wouldn't spend more than the plane ticket cost. And it's not like _I_ get to bring extra bags."

There's something odd about the way she stresses the word that makes Lito frown. "What do you mean?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean?" When Kala is being evasive, she plays with the ends of hair. If she isn't careful, she's going to get it in her coffee.

"About the bags. Is someone else bringing extra bags?"

"I'm sure I don't know what everyone else is bringing," Kala says, and, as usually happens when she's flustered, Wolfgang arrives, taking one of the spare seats at the table.

"Do either of you ever bother to use the internet?" he asks, laying his phone down on his workbench and the table in front of them. "It took me five minutes to find a list of outlet shops in Milan." He scrolls up as they both lean in. "If you're really determined to have to pay excess baggage, this should do it."

Lito raises an eyebrow at him. "I didn't think this was your sort of thing."

"It isn't." Wolfgang turns to Kala, whose attention is now fixed on the list in front of her. "But it makes her happy, and that makes me happy. Makes us happy."

That's true enough, but Lito is also fairly sure that it's supposed to make him forget about their conversation. He'll have the rest of the day to get the story out of her, he's sure.

He must have thought that too strongly, because Kala looks up at Wolfgang, something close to pleading in her eyes. "Are you doing anything right now?" she asks, in a way that makes it clear he's supposed to say that he isn't. 

"Uh…"

"Excellent, then you can come too!" It's too bright and cheerful, as though Kala is delighted not to have to spend the afternoon alone with Lito.

Foiled again, Lito takes far too much pleasure in downing the last of the coffee in a single gulp, making Kala pull a disgusted face.

~~~

There were times when it really sucked being the one who had help to be responsible. While Hernando held Dani's hand, Lito sat in the waiting room and filled in more of the endless paperwork, Nomi and Will leaning over his shoulders.

"Maybe one of you should just do this," he said, after having to initial yet another correction to the form. "I don't think I can remember my own name right now." He threw down the pen and pushed out of the chair, pacing the room as Nomi took his place. 

"You're going to be fine," Riley said, stopping him by simply standing in front of him. 

"It's too early," he said. "We were supposed to have another few weeks."

"Maybe no one emailed them their calendar," Sun said. Despite her apparently detachment, her hands were clenched into tight fists at her sides. 

"The doctor said it was fine," Riley said, drawing his attention back to her. With eight of them in the small room, it should have felt crowded, but instead, he felt safe. He wrapped his arms around himself, feeling Wolfgang's hand on his shoulder, Kala pressing her forehead to the back of his neck. 

In front of him, Will was behind Riley, his hands on her shoulders, and Lito caught the rush of a fierce, determined joy that, for a second, made him forget his own fears. He met Riley's eyes, meeting their pain and sorrow and happiness, and he reached out to put a hand on her cheek.

"Thank you," he whispered, and she smiled, eyes wet. 

Nomi's gentle cough broke the moment, and he looked over to where she was tapping the pen against the form. "I know everything else, but. Did you and Hernando make a decision?"

It had taken three long calls to San Francisco, untangling both the bureaucracy and the emotions, but Lito had come out of it sure of what he wanted.

"We did. But first, I wanted to say to all of you-" and he was talking to all of them, but it was Riley he looked at, "-that whatever we write down, this is our family. This is all of our family. And I would not want or be able to do this without you."

He closed his eyes for a second, letting it wash over him. It would have been more than enough for anyone to have such demonstrations of love all the time. To be able to feel it as well was like having his heart catch fire.

Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes, and started to say, "Put down-"

"Lito!"

Hernando's shout was so sudden that the pen skidded across the page, ruining the form. Lito was on his feet before he realised, the others close behind him. 

"What is it? Is everything okay?"

Seeing the panic he'd caused, Hernando reached out and grabbed his shoulders, his face alight. "Yes! Yes, but you must come now."

With barely a glance at the shining, smiling faces behind him, Lito went.

~~~

It's always a little awkward, walking in when Will and Riley are in the middle of a fight. Not that they argue much, it's just that the conflict tends to draw attention, which draws the attention of the cluster, and that's how Lito finds himself walking into a room that looks like it's been ransacked.

"Is this a bad time?" he asks, knowing the answer, and assessing the damage.

There's a moment of panic so bright that Lito actually puts his hand to his chest, the feeling visceral and alarming. Riley grabs a pile of clothes and throws it over something, managing to kick over a suitcase on the way. Will jumps in front of Lito, blocking his view of the room.

"Sort of," he says, and Lito is back in his dressing room, alone, his heart racing and brain jumbled. Somewhere, in the next room half a world away, he can hear the bare echoes of an ongoing argument, but as soon as he tries to hear it, it fades out of earshot again.

"Fine," he says, grabbing his script and settling back in his chair. "It's fine."

~~~

When Dani and Hernando helped him to hold both of his daughters in his arms for the first time, Lito was sure his face was going to be stuck in a grin for the rest of the century.

~~~

Having been banned from the kitchen by Hernando and the nursery by Dani and his mother, Lito drifts into the garden, finding Capheus there, waiting for his flight. He looks up and smiles as Lito comes over, dropping into the uncomfortable airport seat next to him.

"I thought you would be too busy to see any of us at the moment," Capheus says.

Lito shrugs. "We wrapped two days ago, so I have been busy getting in everyone's way. It seems that I am not really needed." He gives a long-suffering sigh that doesn't fool Capheus any more than he fools himself. 

"You will have plenty to do once we are all there, I am sure."

"No doubt."

The silence between them is comfortable enough, but Lito shifts a little, trying to bring the question he wants to ask to the front of his mind, and not quite succeeding.

"We are going to love them," Capheus says, answering it anyway. "We already love them."

"I know. It's just…" Lito shakes his head. "There are going to be so many of us, all together. I am not used to it. And we have never spent so much time in the same place at the same time. Perhaps there is a reason we are all scattered across the world normally."

"Lito, I have spent three hours with you while you rehearsed the same line, over and over. And over. And I still love you. I think we will all manage."

"I know."

Shaking his head, Capheus straightened a little in his seat, his voice growing more serious. "When all this began, when we all found each other and understood what it meant, I thought my world was complete. I thought I had found all the love that there could possibly be."

It's an obvious opening, and Lito knows what his next line is. "And now?"

"And now I understand that love is not something that you divide. It's something that multiplies." Capheus grins. "I will see you soon, my friend."

And he looks away, grin broadening as Zakia comes over to him. 

"Are we ready?" she asks, and Capheus reaches up to let her take his hand and pull him to his feet.

"We are," he says. "They are already looking forward to seeing us."

~~~

It takes everyone until one in the morning to get around to it, but really, there hasn't been a moment before now. With thirteen adults and two toddlers, it had been organised chaos from the moment the last one of them arrived until Dani declared herself exhausted and went to bed, leaving just the eight of them, lounging on sofas and pillows and each other, all around the expansive living room.

"Your mom throws an amazing party," Riley says, her head resting on Will's. 

"I know." Lito's head is already sore enough that he knows it will be worse in the morning. "And I'd feel bad for not warning you about Dani's daiquiris, except I will be paying for that one myself." He closes his eyes, aware of the ripple of whispers that goes through the room as he does so. 

Kala giggles, and Lito opens one eye enough to look at her, only to find himself on the receiving end of several nervous looks. 

"If someone doesn't tell me what has been going on for the last month, you can all sleep in the garden," he says, without any real threat in the words, because he doesnt think he has the energy.

"Yeah, we are officially the worst secret keepers ever," Nomi says, and Sun snorts.

"I don't know. He still doesn't know what it is, so that has to count for something."

"Still don't know what what is?" Lito asks, starting to get actually annoyed at this point.

"This."

He hadn't actually noticed that Wolfgang and Capheus had left the room until their voices come from behind him, and he realises they'd left the room and visited at the same time. It's not something he's very good at, and he's sort of impressed with the sneakiness.

They put two parcels down in front of him, wrapped in the paper that Dani bought for film crew presents, which seems weird. 

"It took a bit of assembling," Riley says, seeing his frown. "But don't worry, Dani didn't know anything about it either."

"No one else does," Kala puts in, slipping from the sofa to kneel opposite him, leaning against the table. "This one is just for us."

"It's just from us," Will corrects. "For now."

More than confused than ever, Lito carefully pulls the smaller parcel towards him. It's a soft square, a few inches thick, and it unfolds into a playmat about three feet square. There are roads and towns and parks marked on it, and a railway circling the outside. 

As he opens the other parcel, a large box that rattles a little as he moves it, it's the smell that hits him first. The scent of wood and paint, the feelings of anticipation and excitement that he knows aren't just his. When they get it right, the cluster takes and amplifies everything, acting as an emotional echo chamber where all of Lito's feelings come right back at him, bound up and resonating with everyone else's. It's such an astonishing high that it makes him wonder how on earth humans live without it.

Inside the box are eight smaller boxes, all of them wrapped in distinctive paper of their own, along with a few loose pieces in the bottom. He leaves those for now, lifting out the boxes in turn. Each one gets carefully unwrapped, the contents placed on the playmat, until the town has grown in front of them. 

There's a perfect wooden train, with a key to wind the clockwork, and some kind of mechanism that means it can follow the circular track around the town. The driver is blond, and the station it comes with is grey and plain, like the ones from Wolfgang's childhood. 

There's a dark-haired woman with a small, white dog, their house painted so that it seems to have wooden shutters and a red tile roof. One blonde woman figure has a wooden house, although hers seems to be covered in snow, while the other comes with a brightly coloured home and another painted figure with dark skin and streaks of colour in her hair. Although Capheus and his mother left Kibera last year, his model house is painted with a corrugated iron roof, and there's a perfectly copied Van Damn bus to go outside it. Along with a few spare cars for the roads, Will's figure sits inside a painted police car, while Kala's has a white coat and a tiny chemistry set. 

There are spare figures in the box to populate the town, and a few extra animals and trees. But the last box holds only blank, wooden pieces. There's a bigger house than the others, along with three larger and two smaller figures.

"We thought you'd want to paint those yourself," Nomi says.

While Lito has been preoccupied with unwrapping the boxes, the others have joined Kala and him on the floor, all sitting around the huge coffee table. The mat has been taken and straightened out, the pieces placed alongside roads and the train tracks, a whole world coming to life in miniature in front of him. 

After a moment, he places his house on the edge of the town, in the middle of a green area that he decides is a hill. It's large enough, he realises, for at least seven more figures.

"Thank you," he says, the words almost swallowed by the lump in his throat. Putting the figures down, he reaches out and takes Capheus' hand on one side, Sun's on the other. As hands are gripped all around the table, he feels the resonance of it again, the sensation of sixteen hands, all holding on so tightly that he doesn't know how he can bear it. "Thank you, family," he says, and the ripple passes through them, the joy and the love and the acceptance building to such a crescendo that they all gasp when it breaks, leaving Lito feeling overwhelmed and empty and utterly content.

They all draw in a long breath as one, and slowly, reluctantly let go. 

"We should probably put this away again so that the girls can open it in the morning," Will says.

"Probably." Kala has picked up the tiny white dog, turning it in her fingers. "Although I now find that I am wondering if the dog can go on the train."

"I don't see why not," Sun says, a little defiantly.

Wolfgang shrugs. "It might fall off, but we can try." He picks up the train and starts to wind it again. "Let's find out."

They really will have to pack it away again, Lito knows. Alegria and Esperanza are going to love opening it almost as much as they will love playing with it. But for now, he leans back and listens to the others squabble good-naturedly over the placing of houses and where the cars are allowed to go He wraps the voices and the laughter and the happiness around him, the best lullaby he could imagine as he lets himself drift into sleep.


End file.
